


The Wrong Turn

by carolej126



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Magnificent Seven AU: Little Britches ATF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 14:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolej126/pseuds/carolej126
Summary: Written for the VinList January 2017 Challenge: Lost and Alone.A trip to the grocery store goes wrong.





	The Wrong Turn

Lost and alone. That was how he felt.

If only he had climbed into the shopping cart like Chris had suggested, but no, he’d told his dad that he wanted to walk instead. That wasn’t really why, though. He just didn’t want to look like a baby, and only babies rode in the front of shopping carts, with those little seat belts wrapped around them. 

He heaved a sigh. Right now, he wouldn’t have minded it so much.

He had only gone a couple of steps, he was sure of it. And up until that very moment, he’d thought Chris would be _right there_ , when he turned back around. But he wasn’t! He wasn’t anywhere to be seen! 

Vin knew that he shouldn’t have done it, taken that turn down aisle 8, to get a peek, just a quick peek, at the bags of candy and gum on the shelves that seemed to reach all the way to the ceiling. The aisle that Chris always “forgot” to go down, even if Vin wrote M & M’s at the bottom of their shopping list with a red crayon. 

But he had. And now he didn’t know where Chris was. 

His heart pounding, he hurried back down the candy aisle, and then up the next one, aisle 9, full of laundry detergent and big bottles of bleach, barely avoiding the shopping carts that were going every which way in front of him. He ignored the “watch out!” and the “do you need help?” and kept going, hoping that he’d see a familiar face somewhere along the way. Or even when he reached the end.

But he didn’t.

There was no sign of his dad anywhere. 

He didn’t know what to do. Where he was supposed to go if he got lost. His dad had told him, lots of times, but he just couldn’t remember no matter how hard he tried. 

He thought about asking someone for help, but his teacher had just read _Never Talk to Strangers_ to the whole class, and said that a stranger was someone you don’t know, and he didn’t know any of the people in the store, so he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to talk to them. He was allowed to talk to a policeman or a firefighter, but he didn’t see any around, probably because there weren’t any bad guys or fires in the grocery store.

And he wasn’t really lost anyway. Lost meant that you didn’t know where you were, and Vin knew where he was. He glanced up at the sign above his head for confirmation. Yep, he was right at the end of aisle 10, the aisle that meant paper towels, and tissues, and toilet paper. The kinds of stuff that Chris always bought in big boxes, ‘cause “you can never have too much,” whatever that meant. 

He sighed again, trying to decide what to do. Aisle 11 was next, with all of the bread and bagels and hot dog buns. And grape jelly, too, along with peanut butter. 

Bread was on the shopping list, and so was peanut butter, he suddenly remembered. Maybe that’s where Chris was, looking at the white bread, and the wheat bread, and the rye bread (he shivered in disgust at that one). 

Or maybe he was picking out a new jar of crunchy peanut butter, since Vin had finished the last one, using a spoon to scoop out the last of the peanut butter and then eating it all right before dinner. Chris hadn’t been very happy about that, and Vin wasn’t really sure why, because there was no way that a little bit of peanut butter would “spoil his dinner,” ‘cause he was always hungry. JD hadn’t been very happy either, mostly because he’d planned to have a peanut butter sandwich for his bedtime snack, and he’d ended up with just a cheese stick. 

He nodded, his mind made up. That’s where Chris would be, looking at the bread and the peanut butter, thinking that Vin was still there, right behind him, like he was supposed to be.

Like he wished he was. 

But what if he was wrong, and Chris wasn’t there? What if he had forgotten all about Vin, and he had already put some peanut butter and bread into the cart, walked right past aisle 12, slid his credit card through the machine, pushed the cart out to the parking lot, and drove away on the road?! 

Vin shook his head. That was just silly. He knew that. Chris hadn’t forgotten about him, or left him behind. He was sure of it. He was probably just around the corner.

Or at least he hoped he was. Because if he wasn’t…

“Vin?”

Breaking into a run, Vin rushed into his father’s open arms.

“You okay, buddy?”

Chris had been worried, he could tell. And Vin knew he’d have to talk to his dad, tell him that he’d been lost and hadn’t been able to remember what he was supposed to do, but for now, all he wanted to do was hold on tight.

And from the way Chris was hugging him, he must have felt the same way.


End file.
